The Secret Service put an employee on leave who made an inflammatory social media post about conservative icon Charlie Kirk after the 31-year-old was tragically assassinated on Wednesday, bashing those who are mourning his death.
Anthony Pough, an employee of the protective agency, had shared a clip of Kirk suggesting that Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, former Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), and others were “affirmative action picks” because they “weren’t smart enough to get in on their own.”
“If you are Mourning [sic] this guy .. delete me. He spewed hate and racism on his show,” Pough wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday, first reported by RealClearPolitics.
“Especially when we should be mourning the innocent children killed in Colorado,” he added, referring to the shooting at Evergreen High School by a “radicalized” 16-year-old left two students seriously injured.
“At the end of the day, you answer to GOD and speak things into existence. You can only circumvent karma, she doesnt [sic] leave.”
Pough’s post was up for hours before being reported and roiled members of the Secret Service who spotted it.
“The US Secret Service will not tolerate any behavior which violates our code of conduct,” a Secret Service spokesperson told The Post. “We are aware of the employee’s social media post from today, and the individual has been placed on administrative leave as we investigate the matter.”
Kirk was fatally shot in the neck during his American Comeback Tour at Utah Valley University during a question-and-answer session on Wednesday.
The Turning Point USA founder was later pronounced dead after being transported to the hospital and is survived by his wife, Erika, and two young children.
Conservatives and liberals alike across the country mourned Kirk’s assassination, and President Trump announced Thursday that he will posthumously award him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the US.
Pough previously posted in February that he was “proud of the work we do” in the Secret Service.
He also repeatedly ripped into the Trump administration, at one point appearing to mock the feud between the president and former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) boss Elon Musk.
“Remember for the last ten years. You were saying ‘I’ve never seen this country so divisive.[‘] You meant black but it sounds racist so you said woke,” he wrote in March after Trump signed an executive order cracking down on “anti-American” content at Smithsonian museums.
“Now racism is in power or your aligned agenda. It’s Anti-Woke and Anti DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion],” he added. “You teach history so it doesn’t repeat itself. You delete it so it can…”
The Secret Service has been under heavy scrutiny due to a series of security blunders. Most recently, an agent was suspended after a club member brought a Glock into Trump National Golf Club Washington DC undetected late last month.
Last year, the protective agency took heat over two high-profile assassination attempts against Trump, including the Butler, Pa. rally in which a bullet drew blood from the president’s right ear and came within a quarter inch of killing him.
Pough is far from the only one taking swipes at Kirk after he was gunned down Wednesday by a sniper who is still at large.
Shortly after his killing, former MSNBC contributor Mathew Dowd remarked that Kirk was a controversial figure, “who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech aimed at certain groups.”
“And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which lead to hateful actions. And I think that’s the environment we’re in,” he added.
MSNBC later fired Dowd, a former strategist for the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign.
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